£2.5m enterprise ecosystem aims to take business ideas from concept to market
The University of Bradford is to launch a £2.5m Dragons’ Den-style “enterprise ecosystem”.
This will take business ideas from concept to market, as the university bids to become the UK’s number one destination for entrepreneurs.
The Bradford-Renduchintala Enterprise Ecosystem (BREE) will provide financial and mentoring support from business leaders to help young entrepreneurs.
BREE has been made possible thanks to a £1.25m donation from alumnus Dr Murthy Renduchintala, and a further £1.25m from the university.
It will be open to students, staff and members of the community, who will be able to pitch ideas and bid for grants.
Renduchintala, a former Qualcomm and Intel executive, studied at University of Bradford from 1983 to 1991, before a career in the telecommunications, computing and semiconductor industry in the US.
He said: “What we are trying to do with BREE is to emulate what has been popular and prolific in many areas of the US and other parts of the world, where academic research ultimately leads towards ground-breaking transformations in real life.
Dr Murthy Renduchintala
“For example, if you look at many of the technologies that have come out of some very well-known academic institutions in the US and you go forward to today, they are helping create ground-breaking environments.
“For example, think of how Google or Facebook started.
“This was entrepreneurs in the making who were doing research and undergraduate projects who decided to take those ideas and make them into game-changing commercial entities.
“But they required a support environment and a gathering of advisers and well-wishers that could chaperone those plans, not just through the good idea phase, but how to create a business entity, and how to ultimately get that business entity developing products that ultimately consumers can see, touch and feel. That’s what we’re trying to do here.”
BREE will focus on research and innovation to develop businesses and products that have sustainable economic value.
University vice-chancellor, Professor Shirley Congdon, said: “We are immensely grateful to Dr Renduchintala for his contributions to the university.
“BREE represents a fantastic opportunity for the University of Bradford to promote its entrepreneurial spirit and become a leading light for enterprise and innovation in the UK and beyond.
“This initiative will also expand our vision of a world of inclusion and equality, where people want to, and can, make a difference.
“We want to be known as the place to be to make that difference. The whole idea behind BREE is that if you have an idea today, you can create a different future.”
Professor Amir Sharif, Dean of the Faculty of Management, Law & Social Sciences, said: “The faculty has vast experience of working with businesses and organisations of all kinds, which means, alongside our research, we can bring all those skills together to help develop new enterprises.
“The university already innovates but what BREE will enable us to do is to support and accelerate business ideas and to give voice to that in line with our values of excellence, innovation, trust and inclusion.”
